Biotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Scientists will study potential uses of the carbon contained in biomass and of the carbon dioxide arising as a by-product in industrial production. The project is aimed at developing a novel process chain for the synthesis of the basic chemical substance methanol.

Scientists have conducted a research on DNA packaging in the cell nucleus and its alteration in the process of DNA replication. DNA packaging is supposed to have strong influence on genes' activity. It's also one of the mechanisms of epigenetic control of gene expression.

Researchers have studied and visualised the formation of quadruplexes in looped DNA that may be a better representation of DNA in the living cell than in the short and linear pieces of DNA that are more commonly used for such investigations.

Transforming data about the structure of proteins into melodies gives scientists a completely new way of analyzing the molecules that could reveal new insights into how they work - by listening to them. A new study shows how musical sounds can help scientists analyze data using their ears instead of their eyes.

Biologists who study the mechanics of cell division have for years disagreed about how much force is at work when the cell's molecular engines are lining chromosomes up in the cell, preparing to winch copies to opposite poles across a bridge-like structure called the kinetochore to form two new cells. The question is fundamental to understanding how cells divide.

Up until now it had only been possible to create monolayer membranes or vesicles from specially synthesized macromolecules. Vesicles made from a bilayer of naturally occurring proteins that can also be tailored for use in an aqueous or an oil-based environment are something quite new.

Scientists have managed to describe and visualize cell migration on a molecular level. In time, this could become significant in the treatment of infectious diseases, inflammation, cancer, etc. where cell migration plays an important role.